Tracking My Dividend Income over the Last Few Years

Tracking My Dividend Income over the Last Few Years

The other day I realized that despite coming back month in and month out for the past few years to update my dividend income watch list I have never tracked (either on my site or personally) my dividend income and as important dividend income growth. Luckily, fidelity has kept some of that information for me:

Dividend Investing is Not Going to Create Wealth Overnight

At 2 to 4% annual payouts dividend investing is not going to create wealth overnight. In fact, the “wealth” portion of the portfolio is likely to come from growth rather than dividend reinvestment for the foreseeable future.

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Evan is the owner of My Journey to Millions which was started to track his journey from a broke debt ridden law school graduate to building a positive balance. Need more Evan? Follow him on Twitter, Contact him or get new posts directly to your email

With all the ups and downs, wouldn’t be clearer to do a chart of a moving 3 and 6 month average. It would seem that with these averages, you might be able to make some educated projections going forward.

I’m looking at this chart and I find it difficult to see how things have improved over time except that I see more red than blue (very good), and a great start on the orange so far.

Overall, it looks like 2014 is starting of quite well Evan! Hopefully things continue to show growth in the bigger months of March, June, September and December.

@LMAM – I do this exact thing with my passive income and record my moving 3-month average. Given the quarterly cycle for most dividends and the monthly inconsistencies of peer to peer lending interest income, I find this method smooths things out and helps me see the trend line of growth from the compounding that is occurring.

This is exactly why I find it super-helpful to track things month-to-month and maintain some of my own metrics for my financial life. Sometime the day-to-day grind of life makes it really difficult to see progress as it’s happening, but when I step back and look at where I’ve come over a few months or years it is really helpful.

I like the comment about moving averages. I see what you’re doing with your chart above – I do a similar chart for myself. But a moving average might make the trends a little easier to spot.

“This is exactly why I find it super-helpful to track things month-to-month and maintain some of my own metrics for my financial life. Sometime the day-to-day grind of life makes it really difficult to see progress as it’s happening, but when I step back and look at where I’ve come over a few months or years it is really helpful.”

My Journey to Millions

My Journey to Millions is an 8 year old personal finance blog focused on topics including basic personal finance issues, advanced insurance planning, high net worth estate planning. In addition, there is a particular focus on dividend growth investing and option trading.